I booted this game up with low expectations, needless to say i am incredibly pleasantly surprised , I remember having tried wasteland 2 early in its life and bouncing off of it.

Wasteland 3 Really does just a fantastic job of balancing the serious themes of the story with the more wacky and outsider humor. In this way i would describe this game as "Lutheran Fallout" It rejects the modern action oriented first person RPG design by giving a nuts to butts classic CRPG experience instead, the game takes place in an isometric perspective, with very xcom inspired combat, cover system, hit chances, etc.

What the game is really good at though is giving interesting permutations of the story and meaningfully different paths that the player's choices throughout meaningfully affect. These choices often lead to unique battles not seen if taking a different path. This is so refreshing as there are very few instances of being forced through the same situation with slightly different dialogue.

These battles rip the kitchen sink from the wall and brutalizes the player with it , on hard difficulty i was constantly being tasked to do the same; finding ways to exploit the games spiderweb of combat systems and mechanics to be able to overcome certain fights. Get deep enough into the weeds especially as a completionist there will be a vast toolbox of death dealing instruments to discover and upgrade. Spending the first half of the game scraping through encounters makes melting people in the mid game all the more satisfying

I also really enjoy how the game rewards the player for exploration; lots of neat unique weapons, armor, and gizmos to equip, customize, and discover. The best equipment is off the beaten path and the game has many paths that are very... Unbeaten

This game is not perfect however and the first set of issues arose from playing on series x,

The menu and ui is not made with controller in mind, by the hour mark i was realizing just how much faster the game would play out if i could just click on things, i won't exaggerate when i say that controller menuing added ~hours to the runtime vs the speed and precision of the mouse. Another console specific issue is how absolutely mercissley screwed up the targeting was at times, enjoy wrestling with the game to allow you to shoot the person you want to, oftentimes i'd have to reload a fight because of the game snapping to a target across the map when i had already been hitting another enemy spamming A to attack them, the game would send my targeting to the another mook 8 ap of movement away to attack because it decided in between my button presses to target a random enemy and screw the whole strategy.

Another issue with controller is any attack that arcs in a cone, you cannot move the camera when attempting to aim it, meaning that if its a long range weapon you will not be able to see your target on screen while trying to line it up or while the attack is being delivered, I really wish the camera centered on who was getting attacked because i would often not be able to see the results of my attacks. Denying the satisfaction of seeing the enemies blow up or vaporize while also denying critical information to make informed decisions about tactics.

The issues with the games controls really brings it down score and pacing wise ;75 hours could have been 60 (seriously)

there are also a few other nitpicks

-Hyper situational perks that have no use 95% of time (looking at you; pressure cooker, how many fucking cars did i even fight in this game? 3? Maybe ?)

-RNG based loot can play unintentional favorites leading to situations where certain party members embody a walking apocalypse, while the rest of the squad look like weeny hut jr. employees by comparison .

This game is awesome, do yourself a favor and play it with KBM. Controller is a straight up inferior experience

WASTELAND 3 is one of the greatest games I have ever played. It worked for me personally on many different levels:

The gameplay: I'm a big fan of XCOM-style strategy games, and this is a good one. I especially enjoy how both ranged and melee are viable options, and you just specialize characters however you want to.
The world: I enjoyed the setting of post-apocalypse Colorado, especially with all the bizarre characters they filled it with. It's basically another Fallout game, but I actually like the setting of it. And, add to that, the ending plays a song that captures all of your most important moments, changing lyrics to reflect your actions? Incredible. In all seriousness, it did feel like there were some actual consequences to my actions.
The humor: I'll admit, it's definitely weird, but the strong character moments combine with just enough (generally dark) comedy to make this game noticeably funny. I wouldn't call it a comedy, but it is the funniest game I've played. I laughed many more times than I thought I would, sometimes just out of bewildered amusement.
The soundtrack: I'm religious, and it was very surprising to me to hear a select few old hymns incorporated into the music of the game, but it worked wonders. They're really good renditions, firstly, but they also just fit. It's a bizarre experience to be watching a cutscene, see someone's head explode all over the screen in a gory mess, and then fight a battle listening to "Are You Washed In the Blood of the Lamb?" That just worked for me.

Negatives?

1. During the long fights--which, some fights can take upwards of 50 minutes--the music track loops. For the aforementioned hymns & ballads, it can get a bit repetitive.
2. You need to quicksave all the time. Some fights are incredibly stacked against you, and you'll pop into them without warning. Or, technical issues may strike (explained below)... Either way, it's easy to play for 2 hours without saving and lose all of that progress due to a lack of autosave and randomly difficult fights that you weren't warned of.
3. Technical issues: in my 50-ish hours, the game probably crashed ~15 times. And, despite playing on Xbox Series S, whenever I put my console to sleep, the game would face a critical error and cease running. I have no idea why this port is so ill-made, but that was primarily a minor annoyance.

Overall: this game is great. There's a ton of profanity and some very violent stuff, if you're worried about that, but the game itself is incredible. I look forward to replaying it in a few years, when the experience isn't quite so fresh.

Overall, it's pretty darn good. The CnC (choice and consequence) are pretty good, the game has timed quest and don't fuck around about them. I lost Bizarre by my own stupidity. It made me rush all timed quest afterwards. The game certainly has another playthought worth of content at least, maybe two if you go for the best ending and another for Raider run.



I enjoy the game atempts to make Skill Checks not a auto win always , it doesn't happen a lot but it's nice. I thought the use of skill checks was pretty much perfect. Almost all Skill feels rewarding , even Sneak that's generaly terrible in CRPGs , can be use to great use get Sneak attack bonus or just scout rooms ahead. Builds variety doesn't come close to something like DOS2 neither Pathfinder, but there's enough to make a second run not feel boring.



The Combat is really good. Probably my favorite of any Modern CRPG. The story is nothing to amazing but it does it job well , it gives a nice conflict but honestly, the entire game i kinda wished i went a Raider Run and take over Arizona with Cordite. Angela is just too reckless even if Patriac is a major asshole sometimes.



I can see why some people hate it, the humor can be hit or miss but i thought was WAY more tolerable than DOS2, even had a good chuckle with characters like Flab (my homie.. i failed you) , Fargo and the communist robots.